while tgi fridays filed for bankruptcy

HOW DID CHILIS SURVIVE?! while tgi fridays filed for bankruptcy ruby tuesdays collapsed romano's macaroni grill is gone and red lobster just filed for bankruptcy chili's is having double digit growth what did they figure out that everyone else didn't did one appetizer item actually save them hi i'm natalie i'm a founder and you can follow me for more tech and business lore that you can't ignore casual dining was stuck in this middle of not being premium enough not being fast enough and not being exciting enough The average restaurant gets a lot fewer customers than it did in 2019 industry traffic has been reported significantly below twenty nineteen levels in recent years chains were shutting down from the outside it looks like chili's should have been one of them then the triple dippers start to blow up on tiktok CHILI'S TRIPLE DIPPER but it wasn't just one viral video it was dozens of creators the cheese pulls custom combos the best three debates huge shareable platters that you can post on tiktok it was chaotic indulgent nostalgic which makes for a great recipe on the internet the triple dipper sales were up seventy percent year over year The Triple Dipper emerges as a star dish for Chili's comparable sales were as high as thirty one percent in one quarter and that one menu item grew to represent fourteen percent of chili's sales fourteen percent from one appetizer most brands go viral maybe once sell out and then move on but chili's did not treat this as just a moment they treated this like a strategy once the triple dipper caught fire chili's built paid campaigns around it increase marketing spend from thirty two million dollars in twenty seventeen to about one hundred and thirty seven million dollars in twenty twenty five they amplified the user generated content instead of trying to control their own narrative they continue to promote that one item instead of trying to replicate it and they let it be a hero product not just a trend they didn't chase down the next viral item they doubled down on what was working brings us to today chili's is reporting strong double digit growth and significant traffic increases in an industry that is declining this is not just a one week spike this is momentum the triple dipper did not save chili's chili's saved chili's by knowing what to do when it went viral virality is attention and strategy is what turns attention into growth and that is the difference between a trend and a comeback